On Thursday 20 December 2001 03:49, Barry Drake wrote:
> at risk of being off topic - are you saying that you can't
> believe in evolution AND be a Christian?
That depends on how long it takes you to run concepts through to their
logical conclusions. In other words, it's a temporary state (but which in
some people can last a lifetime).
Jesus is Lord... of what? He claimed that ``before Abraham was, I AM'' (John
8:58) - so was he telling the truth (pre-existent Lord), telling a pork pie
(mortal Liar) or deluded (mortal Lunatic)?
So far, this only limits you to progressive creation. However, Jesus clearly
interpreted the Old Testament, and particularly Genesis, from a literal base.
For an example, see Mark 10:6 vs Genesis 1:27. Where God expresses a claim
for authority (e.g. Job ch 38) it is almost always based on His creatorship,
and if not then on His eternity.
There are only two things in the Bible which are unique, and only one of them
is entirely unique. The first is a claim to creation ex nihilo, the second
the fulfilled prophecy. Other ancient books make creation claims, but all of
them involve supernatural beings modifying pre-existent material.
If you spout enough prophecy, you will sooner or later score a hit. Many
religious documents (Mother Shipton, Nostradamus, Q'ran) make prophecies and
score hits. The Bible has lots of prophecy too, but it also has lots of
direct hits, a vastly disproportionate number of them, thousands. This is a
qualitative rather than an absolute proof of supernaturality, but it should
be enough to tide you over pending the development of faith in the ex nihilo
claim.
Without these features, the Bible is just another special book, a Talmud or
Q'ran. Religion becomes a smorgasbord rather than a clear and exclusive
choice.
I became a Christian as a consequence of the second unique feature, and
remained one because of the first.
If any of this causes you a problem, there are an abundance of sites with
information which in toto makes it clear that a belief in creation is an
inevitable consequence of studying nature without prejudice. Some of the more
popular include these:
http://www.icr.org/
http://www.answersingenesis.org/
http://www.pathlights.com/
Here are some good link-farms:
http://www.tagnet.org/anotherviewpoint/catsites.htm
http://www.rae.org/revevlnk.html
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Christianit
y/Topics/Origins_and_Creation/
A site which sets out to refute specific pro-evolutionary anti-creationist
documents (and with regular ``showstopper'' success) is:
http://www.trueorigins.org/
You can also search for key phrases like ``intelligent design'' which is not
creationism per se but does explode conventional evolutionary concepts quite
satisfyingly.
This is not completely OT because integrating a creationist (and
necessarilyanti-evolutionist) commentary module into Sword's collection is a
fabulous idea. As is a resolving-apparent-contradictions module.
Cheers; Leon
